Monday, August 18, 2014

Another video has taken the paranormal social media scene by storm. The video allegedly shows First Responders working the scene of a horrific head-on collision. As a news commentator makes note of the lack of information to the extent of the injuries suffered, a shadowy figure can be seen ascending from the red vehicle, raising its arms, and shooting up towards the heavens. The overwhelming consensus on so many of Facebook's notorious paranormal groups is that this is either the soul of the deceased leaving the body....or perhaps something supernatural coming to collect that soul. Watch the video below:

Did you see it?

This horrific accident took place in late April of 2012 near Brattleboro, VT. 32 year old Dustin North was driving his black Audi with a passenger. Before the crash, witnesses had reported seeing North swerving back and forth at high speeds along Route 30. Richard Kenyon (58), was heading in the opposite direction when he swerved into the opposite lane to avoid North's car, which was in the wrong lane at the time. North swerved back into the correct lane and hit Kenyon's red Jetta head on. The accident happened north of Grafton Village Cheese, near the I-91 overpass.

Fortunately, North and his passenger walked away with only minor injuries. Richard Kenyon also walked away with only minor injuries. However, his passenger, 65 year old Joseph Chagnon, had to be cut out of the vehicle and airlifted to UMass Medical Center with a host of severe injuries. He spent four days in ICU in critical condition, suffering from a broken back, broken ribs, a broken clavicle, broken neck, broken leg, and internal bleeding from lacerations of the liver and kidney. Fortunately, Chagnon survived and was released from the hospital to continue his healing at home. The following November, North was sentenced to 3.5 to 7 years prison for the accident. At the time, he had been under the influence of pain killers, Xanax, and methadone.

Okay...so no one died from this accident. Does that mean the video is necessarily a fake? Perhaps it was a Guardian Angel or spirit guide, watching over and keeping all four men involved in the crash relatively safe. I'd like to believe that...as I'm sure many others would like, as well.

But...that is not the case with this video. If the cartoonish appearance of the apparition didn't alert you to its lack of authenticity, then perhaps this video will convince you. This is the original video footage; notably absent is the black apparition:

Monday, August 4, 2014

Today is somewhat of an interesting day for West Virginia history. On August 4, 1927 the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh landed his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, at Moundsville's Langin Field. Following the success of his solo, non-stop, trans-Atlantic flight that May, Lindbergh was on the West Virginia leg of his country-wide tour promoting aviation.

As far as I know, there were no spooky occurrences directly related to the stop in Moundsville or Lindbergh's public appearance in Wheeling...but the same cannot be said about his actual trans-Atlantic journey! During his solo trip across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, Lindbergh fought a storm, disorienting fog, ice in the fuselage and severe fatigue. At one point, he actually was reported as falling asleep with his eyes open and suffering hallucinations.

But were these images really just simple hallucinations...or something else altogether? Many believe that Charles Lindbergh experienced a very unique (possibly) paranormal phenomena that only a handful of others have experienced over the years: The Third Man Factor.

These incidents wouldn't hit the mainstream public until 1953, when the book, The Spirit of St. Louis, was published. The text contains a timeline of events, including notes concerning the idea that maybe Lindbergh WASN'T alone in his plane during his trans-Atlantic flight. Here's just a few quotes, courtesy of Good Ghosts That Help, about the beings he began seeing around halfway through his historic flight :

* "Those phantoms speak with human voices. They are friendly, vapor-like shapes without substance, able to appear or disappear at will, to pass in and out through the walls of the fuselage.."

* "These spirits have no rigid bodies, yet they remain human in outline and form. They're neither intruders nor strangers, its more like a gathering of friends and family after years of separation, as though I'd known all of them before in some past life."

The Spirit of St. Louis at Langin Field

What Charles Lindbergh experienced while all alone up there in his plane has come to be known as the Third Man Factor. The "third-man" moniker comes from Ernest Shackleton's experience of the phenomena when making the historic trip to the South Pole in 1916. Shackleton, along with another member of the party, F.A. Worsley, both made statements to the effect that they had a strong sensation that they were accompanied by a fourth member of the expedition, or...a third companion. T.S. Eliot drew on that experience, and wrote a poem called The Waste Land, changing the Fourth Man to the Third Man.

However, it wouldn't be until 2009 that the term would really pick up steam.

That year, John Geiger released the book, The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible. Building on over six years of research, the book chronicles the case studies of numerous people who survived with a little help and/or reassurance from someone who wasn't truly there. According to Geiger, the Third Man is an unseen being that intervenes at a critical moment---when people are in great stress or in a life or death struggle---to give comfort, aid, or support.

Mountain climbers, solo sailors, survivors of shipwrecks, and polar explorers make up the largest demographic of witnesses to this phenomena, but the Third Man can pop up anywhere to anyone, it seems. In addition to Charles Lindbergh, another notable case is that of Ron DiFrancesco. DiFrancesco was one of the last, if not THE last person to make it out of the second tower alive during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. At one point where DiFrancesco was giving up, he heard a voice calling him by name, telling him to get up, and that he could do this. DiFrancesco claimed that not only did he hear the unidentified voice, but he also felt an unseen presence with him. He even felt that 'person' lift him up and guide him to safety!

There are definitely enough case studies to show that something is happening to these people, but what exactly that might be is hotly debated. Some believe that these beings are supernatural in origin. Perhaps they are guardian angels or spirit guides? Maybe they're the spirits of loved ones who have passed away coming back to help us when we need them the most? One page I found went as far as to theorize that these beings are gremlins.

Other theories are a little more psychological and/or scientific. It's highly likely that these ARE hallucinations, but hallucinations that are part of a larger coping mechanism as the witnesses are trying to make sense out of tough situations and subconsciously make appropriate choices that the conscious might not be able to tackle. The process might have something to do with the theory of bicameralism, an idea that the human mind once assumed a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking," and a second part which listens and obeys. To me, the theory of the bicameral mind sounds a lot like the idea of Socrates' daimon...a being he thought was a separate entity, but that later scholars argue was simply a manifestation of Socrates' own conscious. Still...to many, this phenomena takes on a very religious or spiritual nature, especially for Christians as the similarities to the Footsteps poem are obvious.

There are a ton of excellent sources on the theory of The Third Man Factor, and I suggest anyone with an interest to do some research of their own as there is no way I can do the subject justice without making this post the size of a book! I've listed a few sources that I used in this blog to get you started, though. Happy Reading!

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About Me

Theresa is a paranormal investigator and Historical Research Manager for Huntington Paranormal Investigations and Research, located in Huntington, WV. She also serves as a tour guide for Haunted and Historic Guyandotte Tours